Ham radio operator called in for Katrina

Published 1:00 am, Friday, June 23, 2006

DANBURY - It was a Friday night when Oscar Fuller received the Red Cross e-mail soliciting help for victims of Hurricane Katrina. Though he sent a quick reply offering to lend a hand, the amateur ham radio operator didn't think he'd be called on.

Forty-eight hours later Fuller, 62, was at a shelter in Gulfport, Miss., helping to reunite victims who were homeless and separated in the storm.

"Within an hour we had every critical shelter in communication with the Red Cross headquarters," he said.

With the electricity out, victims of the hurricane were unable to charge their cell phone batteries. Even if it had been possible to quickly restore power, the cell phone towers were gone.

Until the ham radio operators arrived, all along the Gulf Coast there was no way to get calls through.

"The elderly were taken out of a home and sent over to a shelter," Fuller said. In the process, many people got lost.

Often derided as users of an anachronistic form of communication, ham radio operators are called on when all else fails.

Members of the group will demonstrate their equipment to the public, and try to contact ham operators in other states. There are 670,000 ham radio operators in the United States. Similar field day events are held around the country.

The ham operators will begin setting up an antennae tonight; they'll start to transmit Morse code across the country Saturday afternoon. They hope to make hundreds of contacts with other hams.

It is the power to be able to help in a crisis that led Fuller, a retired IBM executive, to become a ham. The other hams he meets during emergency training drills offered around the region are also retired, he said.

But his group is hoping to attract a new generation. They're working with students in the Newtown school district, helping them to prepare for the licensing exam.

Fuller spent 10 days helping the victims of Hurricane Katrina. It was an experience his wife, Judy, said was wholly worthwhile. "Suddenly (it) became a way to help out a community," she said. "It was just amazing."

Ham radio operators are supposed to be able to go the site of an emergency at a moment's notice.

Fuller keeps a "jump kit" stocked with supplies for the next disaster.

He's ready to go, when all else fails.

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The Candlewood Amateur Radio Association will hold its field day in Cadigan Park, 500 Candlewood Lake Road, Brookfield, for 24 consecutive hours beginning Saturday at 2 p.m.